“This has been going on a year,” said Kelly Fields, chairperson for Local 2192 representing job and family services members.

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The union represents about 160 to 170 staff who assist those in need applying for aid for public assistance including food, health care, child support and adult protective services.

“So it is a large population that it would effect,” Fields said.

She declined to comment details of negotiations.

“We just need the commissioners to give us the ‘yes’ to bring to our members to make a decision on the contract,” Fields said. “Thus far, they have not done that.”

Lorain County Commission Lori Kokoski said the contract talks were at impasse when the union issued its strike notice.

The negotiations are hung up on one issue, which is “spousal carve-out” for health insurance benefits, Kokoski said.

That is an issue stating if a union member’s spouse works and the spouse’s employer offers health insurance, the spouse must use that health insurance, she said.

That would not be required immediately for the Job and Family Services staff, Kokoski said.

However, the commissioners want the appropriate language in the contract if it is needed to save money in the future due to rising costs of health care, she said.

“A lot of people do this already in the private sector and public sector,” Kokoski said. “We have not said we’re going to implement it. We have just said we need the language in there if we need it in the future.”

The county has about 20 union contracts with workers in its various departments and so far, six or seven have adopted the contract language for spousal carve-out, Kokoski said.

If it goes into effect, the spousal carve-out provision also will affect nonunion and management employees, she said.

The State Employment Relations Board has asked both sides to meet for mediation Sept. 19, Kokoski said.

Fields declined to comment if or when there could be mediation for the sides.

“We have tried to take the high road,” she said. “We don’t want to bargain this through the papers, through the public.”

Fields added Local 2192 needs information to take to its members to make an informed decision on the contract.

On Sept. 13, emotions ran high at the Lorain County Commission meeting when union supporters said the law firm handling negotiations for the commissioners treated the county workers disrespectfully.

Kokoski and fellow county Commissioner Matt Lundy heard from Harry Williamson, president of the Lorain County AFL-CIO; Jim Slone, chairman of the United Auto Workers Community Action Program, known as the CAP Council; and Mary Springowski, a longtime UAW member who also serves as an elected Lorain councilwoman.

Some of the affected workers are eligible for the same assistance benefits they are helping their clients apply for, said Williamson, who added that fact disgusts him.

Springowski she had to question the commissioners’ commitment to the social service workers, to taxpayers and to the Democratic Party that has supported them.

Using strong language, Slone said the commissioners were traitors to the principles of the Democratic Party and that statewide, unions may not support Democratic candidates because of the impasse in Lorain County.

The actions and treatment by the commissioners’ negotiating law firm “fall directly back on your shoulders,” Slone said.

Kokoski bristled at the accusation, asking Slone, “Are you serious?”

“Calling us traitors and treason and all that is really over the top,” she said.

The social service workers have a tough job, Lundy said, and the commissioners respect and value the workers and the collective bargaining process.

“We don’t want to be in this position any more than anybody else does,” he said.